Graham Greene

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Standard Name: Greene, Graham
Birth Name: Henry Graham Greene
An English novelist of exceptional energy, Graham Greene built a career spanning a dozen genres—most notably more than twenty novels or thrillers, as well as short stories, film reviews, travel books, plays, screenplays, and autobiography. Many of his novels wrestle with issues of belief. His personal correspondence included thousands of letters, and for much of his life he reported as a spy to the British Secret Intelligence Service . His restlessness drew him to dangerous places, adulterous relationships, self-harm, and a belief, infusing his pages, that a focus on squalor makes for an honest portrayal of the world.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Intertextuality and Influence Beryl Bainbridge
The married couple Colin Haycraft and Alice Thomas Ellis (herself a writer) both worked at Gerald Duckworth publishers, and met BB while she was working there as a clerk. They taught her to write properly...
Literary responses Pat Barker
Reviewer Lara Feigel found that PB 's allusions to actual, historical people (Paul sharing sentiments, his place of work, the circumstances of his falling in love, with Graham Greene ; Elinor owing something to Elizabeth Bowen
Textual Production Sybille Bedford
SB began reviewing for the New York Review of Books by 1963, and covered a wide range of genres: literary history (a book on Oscar Wilde ), fiction (Graham Greene ), travel writing (...
Dedications Theodora Benson
TB 's novel The Undertaker's Wife, dedicated to Graham Greene , was a more complex and subtle work than her earlier fictions.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Performance of text Elizabeth Bowen
EB , Graham Greene , and V. S. Pritchett read on the BBC Third Programme letters which they had exchanged about the writer's role in society.
Greene, Graham. Graham Greene. A Life in Letters. Editor Greene, Richard, Alfred A. Knopf.
147
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Bowen
Her travels nourished her friendships. She visited many friends on trips to the USA, including Eudora Welty , and she met Graham Greene when lecturing in Vienna.
Austin, Allan E. Elizabeth Bowen. Twayne.
3
Glendinning, Victoria. Elizabeth Bowen. Alfred A. Knopf.
184, 228-9, 218-19
Intertextuality and Influence Marjorie Bowen
In his introduction to a later edition, Graham Greene notes the effect of reading The Viper of Milan when he was in his teens. From that moment I began to write,
Greene, Graham, and Marjorie Bowen. “Introductory Note”. The Viper of Milan, Bodley Head, pp. 9-10.
9
he states, and...
Literary responses Marjorie Bowen
MB was admired in her own day by others who prided themselves on the popular touch in their writing: Mark Twain , Walter de la Mare , Compton Mackenzie , and Hugh Walpole , who...
Publishing Ivy Compton-Burnett
In 1946 Graham Greene , who worked for the publisher Eyre and Spottiswoode , tried to arrange for his employers to reissue the seven-year-old A Family and a Fortune as well as ICB 's three...
Education Frances Cornford
Although her step-brother Bernard went to Eton , Frances Cornford received her education at home, and sometimes shared classes with her nearby cousins, one of whom was Gwen Darwin , later Raverat.
Cornford, Hugh et al. “Frances Cornford 1886-1960”. Selected Poems, edited by Jane Dowson and Jane Dowson, Enitharmon Press, p. xxvii - xxxvii.
xxviii
Raverat, Gwen. Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood. Faber and Faber.
63-4
Frances's...
Literary responses Shelagh Delaney
The play provoked controversy for its matter-of-fact treatment of illegitimate pregnancy, miscegenation, and (male) homosexuality. Some critics admired its freshness and grit, while others found it disgusting and self-indulgent. All agreed that it would have...
Literary responses Daphne Du Maurier
Many commentators, like Anne Armstrong of the Saturday Review and a reviewer in Punch, were shocked and disgusted
Kelly, Richard. Daphne du Maurier. Twayne.
46
by DDM 's cold portrayal of Julius.Graham Greene wrote a review of this novel...
Intertextuality and Influence Rumer Godden
RG found this negotiation among publishers traumatic. She had updated Shakespeare 's The Tempest in the spirit of the entertainments which Graham Greene used to intersperse among his serious novels. Spencer Curtis thought the story...
Literary responses Patricia Highsmith
Graham Greene 's foreword observes that this story is hard to beat for pure physical horror, an effect rare in PH 's work.
Wilson, Andrew Norman. Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith. Bloomsbury.
267
Literary responses Patricia Highsmith
She has been better appreciated in Britain than her native USA, and perhaps better in Europe than in Britain. Frank Richards wrote that she made a life's work of her ostracisation from the American...

Timeline

13 January 1950: Carol Reed's most successful film, The Third...

Building item

13 January 1950

Carol Reed 's most successful film, The Third Man, starring Orson Welles , opened in London.

30 May 1967: Colonel Emeka Ojukwu of Eastern Nigeria made...

National or international item

30 May 1967

Colonel Emeka Ojukwu of Eastern Nigeria made a unilateral declaration of independence on the part of the Ibo people, which set up the Republic of Biafra.

By late October 1975: The short-story volume Angels at the Ritz,...

Writing climate item

By late October 1975

The short-story volume Angels at the Ritz, by expatriate Irish writer William Trevor (born Trevor Cox in 1928), was hailed by Graham Greene as probably the best collection of stories since Joyce 's Dubliners.

Summer 2005: News broke that one of the bestselling nonfiction...

Women writers item

Summer 2005

News broke that one of the bestselling nonfiction books of the year, Judith Kelly 's Rock Me Gently, included passages almost verbally identical with passages by other authors.

Texts

White, Antonia. “A Child of the Five Wounds”. The Old School, edited by Graham Greene, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 209-26.
Greene, Graham. Brighton Rock. Heinemann, 1938.
Greene, Graham. Graham Greene. A Life in Letters. Editor Greene, Richard, Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.
Benson, Theodora. “Hot-Water-Bottle Love”. The Old School, edited by Graham Greene, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 27-36.
Greene, Graham, and Marjorie Bowen. “Introductory Note”. The Viper of Milan, Bodley Head, 1960, pp. 9-10.
Robertson, E. Arnot. “Potting Shed of the English Rose”. The Old School, edited by Graham Greene, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 153-64.
Ford, Ford Madox, and Graham Greene. The Ford Madox Ford Reader. Editor Stang, Sondra J., Carcanet, 1986.
Greene, Graham. The Heart of the Matter. Heinemann, 1948.
Greene, Graham. The Human Factor. Bodley Head, 1978.
Bowen, Elizabeth. “The Mulberry Tree”. The Old School, edited by Graham Greene, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 37-51.
Greene, Graham. The Quiet American. Heinemann, 1955.
Greene, Graham. Ways of Escape. Lester and Orpen Dennys, 1980.